If something differentiates the economy of the 21st century from that of the century we left behind is the proliferation of experiential products, products whose value or differentiation is not evident until we develop an experience of prolonged use.In the second half of the twentieth century a marketing technique that ensured the success of a product was to add complexity to it, endowing it with more and more features and configurations.The cheapening of the microprocessors and with the digitalization of practically everything that works with electricity (today they sell bulbs with WiFi), has taken us to a stage where the Marketing now works hard to balance functionality with perception of simplicity of use.

Like any other sales process, that of experiential products is a successive obstacle course that we will typically illustrate with a sales funnel or funnel.But, unlike other products, the experiential ones have to overcome an extra obstacle: to understand the proposal of value of the seller and the difficulty to obtain it.

As is derived from the diagram, without understanding the value proposition the purchase decision is suspended, short-circuited.Try to mentally erase in the diagram above the gray box of anti-uncertainty techniques and you will see how it is impossible to progress towards the affordable product.

When we do not give the consumer access to the product or clear demonstrations of how it works and what personal value it will produce, sales do not flow.Then we are worried and maybe even rehearse a promotion based on strong discounts for new customers, sales flashes or some other kind of economic royalty.However, is it not clear from the above diagram that by acting on the price we will not be able to reach the affordable product box in any way?

There are several ways to avoid the obstacle of uncertainty of the value of the product.In the area of complex digital products, such as productivity software, have been using free marketing techniques, such as the shareware technique, which allows you to test the product for free for a period of time or sessions, or the freemium business model, Which is based on the creation of two parallel products, one of which is free and dispels doubts about the value of the other.

The techniques and models based on the gratuitousness and the direct proof of the product (or of a limited version of the product) are enormously powerful because they face at one time the two great obstacles of the sale of experiential ones: the uncertainty about the value and the fear to the Excessive expenditure.

But the techniques based on Free are not universally applicable: they are not feasible when the product has a marginal cost (cost of repetitive production) appreciable.Almost any physical product falls into this category.Even the software in the cloud, which translates the computational costs linked to the use by the seller falls into this category.

When it is not possible or financially advisable to test the product, can we combat uncertainty with other marketing techniques?In my opinion, this is where the modern promotional video is focused today, much more focused on eliminating uncertainty than on spreading the brand of the manufacturer or the product (awarness).

Paypal, the well-known media startup uses the promotional video in each new product that launches, aware that with each one is creating a new paradigm of the payment process.

When we use it as a tool to combat uncertainty, a promotional video of an experiential product should ask for two objectives:

Clarify what value it will generate to users of the product,

Demystify any a priori idea about the difficulty of using the product.

In some cases it will be necessary to include, in addition, a few initial initials that present the opportunity, typically based on a problem or need of the client of which, sometimes, is not even aware previously.